Dedicated to the advancement of the State of Indiana by re-affirming our state's constitutional principles that: all people are created equal; no religious test shall be imposed on our public officials and offices of trust; and no special privileges or immunities shall be granted to any class of citizens which are not granted on the same terms to all citizens.
Advance Indiana, LLC. Copyright 2005-16. All rights reserved.

Sunday, February 08, 2009

I'm Shocked, Shocked: Colts Player Arrested For Disorderly Conduct

By this point, you know the drill. A professional basketball or football player is out late at night in a nightclub in town. He has too much to drink. He causes a ruckus. Police are called. He says you can't arrest me because I'm a Colts player or I'm a Pacers player. Police arrest the pro athlete. Athlete hires Jim Voyles to defend him. After a few months go by, the charges are dropped or are pleaded down to a petty misdemeanor charge. Well, it's happening again. Colts defensive tackle Darrell Reid was arrested last night for disorderly conduct and trespass after he refused to leave the Oxygen nightclub on the City's far northside. A Star report says:

Indianapolis Metropolitan police said Reid grew verbally abusive when he was told he couldn’t enter the lounge.According to a police report, when Reid was told to leave the parking lot he said: “I don’t have to because I am a football player with the Indianapolis Colts.”

The officer responded: “I don’t care who you are. I am a police officer.”

The confrontation began after the owner of the lounge asked the IMPD officer working security to shut down admission because the bar was crowded to capacity. The officer was also asked to help divert traffic out of the parking lot. As he was doing so, Reid, driving a Dodge Charger with four passengers inside, tried to pull in.

Reid said he needed to go in the lounge and that he knew the owner. But the officer told him to come back in an hour when the bar had emptied out some. As Reid and the officer squabbled, Reid at one point put his car in reverse and almost caused an accident, according to the police report.

The officer said he asked Reid several times to leave before giving him a final warning. When he did, Reid, “started running off at the mouth,” according to the police report, and he was arrested.

Here's my favorite part of the Star report:

While Reid was placed into a Marion County sheriff’s transport van, his friends said they would drive his car home. But they returned 20 minutes later and tried to talk the deputy who drove the van into letting Reid go because “the news media might get wind of the info and it will lead to a bad image on the Colts player,” the report states.

Well, the media caught wind of Reid's arrest and it's just more of the same old, same old. These guys don't need another arrest to earn their bad image. They've already earned that. Reid, by the way, is an unrestricted agent making close to $1 million a year.

UPDATE: That didn't take long. WRTV is reporting that charges will not be filed against Reid because there is insufficient evidence. The club's owner, Ivan Duncan, describes Reid as a regular who was welcome at the club that night. "We know him, yes -- very nice guy," Duncan said. "It was a lack of communication. He's welcome to come here and park, and I think it was just lack of communication." It should be pointed out that the original Star report noted that an IMPD officer was working security for the club on the night of Reid's arrest, a situation which can create a conflict of interest for the police officer doubling as a public servant and a private security guard for a night club. It's hard to believe the off-duty police officer would not have understood the club owner's instructions regarding Reid. And it still doesn't excuse the behavior the police report described, including Reid cursing at the police officer and nearly striking another vehicle in the parking lot during the heated exchange.

8 comments:

Sounds like he was arrested for what was called contempt of cop in the old days. Who gave the police the right to tell him to leave the parking lot? If he knew the owner, maybe the owner would have had 4 people leave. Anybody who has any experience in these things should always approach the polcie version with caution. How was he guilty of disolrderly conduct? The officer had to have authority of the owner to make it trespass. I am aware of the Colts getting special treatemnt fromt his prosecutor's office but one should not assume, especially if one is an attorney, that everything IMPD officersw say is true. PS I wish the city had called the Colts bluff on their empty threat to go to LA.

When you're working as an agent of the owner of said premises (i.e. being paid to work security), you have the authority to both trespass people from the property and arrest them for trespass if they refuse to leave the property.

If you let everybody in the parking lot who said they knew the owner (and EVERYBODY knows the owner), you'd have a fire hazard. It would have made more sense for him to do it the way they do at every other bar in the world, have the owner come out and walk him through, OR give instructions to the person you hired to act as agent of said premises.

I have heard the story from Darrell's side and he said he was on the phone with the club owner who was instructing him to park in front of the club and that he would meet him at the door and escort him in. Darrell was not even allowed to get close enough where it would have been reasonable for the owner to meet him. DR saw this same police officer in the same club hitting on women in his group while on duty the weekend before and following that event at the local Perkins with women in and around his police vehicle. DR's camp also says the police officer was the first person to mention that he was a Colts player and that DR was not expecting any special treatment but was just following the owners instructions. He even offered to hand his phoen over to the police officer so he could speak with the owner directly. I believe this is more a case of a police officer that likes tro be the center of attention and may have soem jealousy issues with Colts players. Again, Darrell was NOT DRUNK (he ALWAYS gets a limo when he plans on drinking and that is widely known), had NO DRUGS, and did not threaten or cuss at the police officer but simply got loud and frustrated with the police officers attitude.

Well, not that Darrell isn't an angel but I'd have a hard time taking his word for it. From what it sounds like one or the other of them was evidently stalking the other for him to see him at all these places. Then again, if all of this stuff is so widely known I wonder what hole I've been living in lately. Maybe I should spend more time in Castleton on the weekends.

If some random guy walked up to me and handed me a cell phone at work I'd hang it up too, but that's just me. Again, if the owner had walked outside it wouldn't have been an issue. Cursing has nothing to do with disorderly conduct. It's not what you say so much as how you say it, i.e. loud and frustrated (and refusing to leave.) I'd chalk it up to a misunderstanding, but nevertheless one guy went to jail and one guy went home. Screaming and yelling never does anybody any good, especially when somebody can do what everybody else was probably thinking (get rid of the knucklehead causing the raucus).

Sorry but when you're wanting to dirty up the Colts so your attacks on the CIB will be more effects (after all, who wouldn't be angry at the CIB for subsidizing a bunch of "thugs"), then you don't care about DR's side.

I think some of you are forgetting that the Colts have only had a few minor run ins with the law and when they did, they have been dealt with firmly. The Colts organization is not like the Pacers who seem to seek out thugs and then ignore their bad behavior. The Colts organization has much more class than that and if there is any substance to this allegation, you can count on DR being dealt with..I must admit that at this point, it sounds more like a cop/security guard out of control than it does Colts problem.

He has been for some time, Concerned Taxpayer. I'll give you something else to think about: The same guys on the force who work for Mayor Ballard, driving him, etc, work the sidelines at the Colts games.

But in either their case or Chief Spears, I am sure there is noooo conflict of interest, nope.

SUPPORT ADVANCE INDIANA

It takes many hours of time to publish content for Advance Indiana. If you enjoy reading the content of this blog, please help out by contributing. You can click on the "Make A Donation" button below to support Advance Indiana by using PayPal. Thanks to all of those readers who have made contributions in the past and continue to support this blog with your contributions. If you would rather support the blog using an alternative source of payment or would like to advertise on this blog, e-mail me at gwelsh@indy.rr.com for more information.

Blogflux

Subscribe To

Comment Policy

Advance Indiana allows you to post comments via this blog subject to the guidelines set forth herein. You understand that any comments you post are your own and are not those of Advance Indiana. You further understand that Advance Indiana is not responsible for the content of any external sites referenced in your comments. Unlawful, harassing, defamatory, abusive, threatening, harmful, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, racially offensive, or otherwise objectionable comments are not acceptable. If you think any content posted or otherwise included in Advance Indiana violates the guidelines set forth herein, then please alert Advance Indiana.
Advance Indiana reserves the right to pre-screen, edit, and remove any post as it deems appropriate. You specifically acknowledge that Advance Indiana has no obligation to display any post submitted or otherwise provided via Advance Indiana.